The Secrets of Aperture
by likekattheboss
Summary: GLaDOS finds someone hiding in the walls when searching for the testing bots. They finally meet and a dark secret is revealed, but with the whole WORLD after GLaDOS, can she and the hacker defend themselves against the greatest minds of their generation? I'll keep posting till I feel like stopping. :3
1. Chapter 1

Someone was behind the wall.

GLaDOS performed several scans on the facility, but nothing came up.

This worried her.

The testing bots were missing, and someone was hiding in the mass of wires behind the panels... _The Rat? _No. It couldn't possibly be. She was forced to hack into _her own constructs_ in a way that was so subtle they wouldn't know she was there, and recover video footage to find out what they were up to. There was no other option. _I really hope Black Mesa has nothing to do with this._

ATLAS beeped at P-Body, as they spun around together, knocking each other over. A tall girl with straight black hair laughed, putting her hand to her mouth quickly as to not offend the robots, or their terrible dancing. She had pale skin and her face was dotted with freckles.

"Nice try." she snorted, her dark red eyes catching the light. She reached down to her phone, (which she had cleverly plugged into a potato for charging) then put on some catchy music that boomed through the speakers she'd hacked. _Honestly, how does she manage to maintain the facility when everything is so easy to hack?_ It was someone playing dubstep violin, (**A/N: Yes I put those words in the same sentence**) and watched as the robots once again, fell over in attempt to dance. "Look, you'd better get going. GLaDOS will want you to test. I'll get the panels for you. Just- watch the turret box on the way out."


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**So yeah, this is my second FanFic that will be updated in between writing New Beginnings (don't worry, that's still continuing!) The chapters may be small to begin with, but that's because of the scarce amount of time I have to write. My homework difficulty level has increased by 150% (and I am also coding in between writing music in my free time) so as you can tell, my life is currently as busy as-**

**Oh, the chapter? Ok... Here you go.**

"Where have you been?" GLaDOS demanded, her cold voice echoing through the room. The two slowly emerged from the now spazzing panel, then looked back to see if the girl was still there, however there was no trace of anybody in there at all. They couldn't have imagined it because...

"Where have you been? I was worried-" she cut herself off quickly. Did she really care? _No_, she thought, _this can not be happening. I do NOT feel emotions for them,_ "-About the two of you disrupting Science." she quickly added. She noticed them drawing closer in fright. The bodies of the two robots soon exploded for the maintenance arms to deal with, but the malfunctioning panel made GLaDOS question their disappearance in such a way that gave her the urge to check what they saw...

_No... It's impossible. There is a human! No files. No files on the surface- or birth record. But she is real, data proves that. But no human has eyes like hers: they are dark red. Not brown. Dark red._

_Oh no. No. No no no no no. She messed with the panel. She hacked her way through 30,000,000 of my firewalls. Thirty million. That's impossible, isn't it? Or it would take at least a good 90 years for an extremely intelligent scientist. But she did it. In under 5 minutes. There wasn't a single flaw in my code, and the girl who hacked it is..._

_You have got to be kidding me._


	3. Chapter 3

Niomi's POV:

Hmm... Hacking is not that easy. A few firewalls, the most advanced code on the face of the Earth, done. I've created my own programs on this computer, working out 900 walls per hour. Another one is doing 909. A screen to my right is more up to date, working out the bottom half of the code. Altogether we are 237,113,982 firewalls down out of 1,000,000,000 trying to hack a moron to see his location. Been at this for a good 1 and a half hours or so. The computers have been going at it for about 30 years. Long time, I know, but I'd also been studying the cryogenic storage units and... Well, thirty years later- here we are. _God, this is so slow: _the panels aren't as advanced as an idiot. Seems a little on the, umm, paranoid, side GLaDOS. But then again, they did spend 10 hours trying to work out how to hack the panels. Once they did, it was easy peasy and I coded more software to hack it in five minutes. Because I can't be bothered to actually do it myself.

The images off the screen rushed past me at a rate that only I could experience- his programmed life reduced to a string of code that skimmed my eyes, my fingers working at extraordinary rates. If this works, I would scream. (Probably because his knowledge of anything would make me want to personally pluck out every single nerve in my body one by one.)

The room I sat in was fairly basic: brown, cracked and deteriorated walls surrounded me, covered with several hundred wires that were connected to panels floor consisted of beige plaster, circuit boards and potatoes. That's basic, isn't it? God. I'm going back to sleep.

As I wormed my way through the vents I passed Her chamber. I came into the room with the wires for the panels and I knew she was on the other side. Oh God. There is a gap. Then an electrical creaky noise. A small yellow light.

"YOU."

OK. CHANGE OF PLAN: RUN. I scrambled through more vents. I quickly backed away as I heard the crumbling of stone and saw the drop ahead. Jump or die. Jump or die.

I jumped.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Got a few reviews for this story so far with ways to improve. So here is the improving chapter- I hope. I worked on this for hours- even on the bus... I missed my stop and had to walk! That's what I sacrifice for you! Anyway... Hopefully more New Beginnings soon, if I hear from TopHatRose. XD**


	4. Chapter 4

GLaDOS' POV

What had she done this time?

Well, she had inverted her computer's rotational velocidensity to find the moron's IP address, and her terrible coding skills almost implanted a deadly virus into his code. I'm not mad that she almost hurt him in a way that would affect him terribly and get (partially) even on what he did to this place; I'm mad because if she'd continued, she would have caused a Reactor Core Meltdown, and frankly, I've had enough of those. She clearly had no idea what she was doing. This isn't remotely progressive. Scrolling through what she typed I could see her outrageous mistakes. So many errors.

The claw I sent to grab her grabbed the Ratt instead, so I used him as the mentally ill source of information that he is. He wasn't very good at his only purpose, though, and it took time to get it out of him. But I can not believe it: that idiot jumped. Did she want to kill herself that bad? She fell down an alternate hole to the one I fell down when I was in a _POTATO_\- to a part of the facility I had no control over.

_Not for long, anyway._

* * *

Niomi's POV:

The air raised past me as I fell. I looked down to the ruins that flashed up with every little second that I was slicing through the cold, harsh nothingness into the dark below.

I knew I wouldn't survive. I didn't have any boots on, and even if I were to hit the ground, I'd gathered up enough momentum from the fall to crush every bone in my body if I collided with any surface. But the secret to survival is keeping a clear mind, and a positive attitude. Basically, think you'll survive and you probably will.

I felt something wet on my back that was falling with me. Water. It was my only hope of surviving this drop. If it had collected at the bottom I may be able to dive in. I turned so that I was streamlined, my hands coming to a point in front of my face. _Please work_.

I took a deep breath.

And penetrated the water.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Half term... One whole week of writing! Yesss! I hope you enjoyed this chapter- I know I've had two POVs. Anyway, New Beginnings is slightly delayed- I had three chapters planned, but TopHatRose hasn't got back to me yet. Oh well- THIS STORY WILL STILL FLOURISH!**

**Laters!**

**Oh, and iammemyself, I can't help it if I miss my stop! Wait- I can.**

**Solution: I need to stop being a doofus and pay attention! XD**


	5. Chapter 5

3rd Person:

A body was held upright against the wall of Her chamber with a spotlight above it. A _woman's_ body. The light just made it possible to see the body was a very pale colour, yet not white- her pink lips were just darker than the colour of her skin. White, synthetic hair fell down to her chin, skimming her closed eyes with the occasional silver strand that managed to give an impression of sophistication. As the light grew brighter you could see a white jumpsuit bearing the Aperture logo with reflective black sleeves that covered her hands in a glove-like way. So graceful was the woman, that her body seemed flawlessly human.

**[Core_Transfer Initiated]**

_She_ began to fall to the ground, trying to contain the overwhelming pain of being torn apart from her chassis without making a sound. She would still be connected to the mainframe, of course, but from a mobile body instead of her original one.

**[Core_Transfer 57% Complete and Increasing] **

The agony pierced through her body like a pair of scissors cutting her from her chassis, but it had to be done.

**[Core_Transfer 81% Complete]**

A few more seconds and she could go after that idiot. A few, pain-filled seconds for hours of revenge. _That seemed like a fair enough deal_.

**[Core_Transfer Complete: Initiating Startup] **

The eyes of the woman opened revealing perfect yellow optics that were capable of a stare so powerful it would make anyone,_ or anything_, stop in their tracks. Suddenly, the body jerked out of it's position and walked forward as the restraints keeping it upright loosened.

She took a step into the elevator with a confidence, then descended into the darkness beneath her.

The ground was full of puddles and little lakes deep enough to submerge a bus, where the falling water had worn away at the stony path. The tunnel seemed to worm on forever, moss lacing the crusty walls and other strange plants drooping from the ceiling that were dripping with water, home of-

Birds.

GLaDOS, traumatised, ran for the life of her, stumbling over pieces of scrap metal and plastic when she heard the loud cry of crows coming closer. Shadows of black wings grew bigger.

* * *

Niomi's POV:

_I-I'm alive! I did it!_ My chest burned as I waved arms in front of me. I needed air. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to let go and give up, but I had to reach the surface. I clawed up some plant covered metal that lay half in/out of the water for help. I could see the skin of the water getting closer. Then I could breathe.

Such an amazing feeling- after struggling to keep consciousness. I filled my lungs with as much air as I could.

Boot prints lay in the mud, spread out as if someone had been running recently. They were neatly in line, which was unusual. Curious, I decided to follow them.

Someone had been here before.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Longer chapter for you- I hope you enjoy it. :3 I've only just worked out how to use this thang... Hope you like Android-GLaDOS, too. **


	6. Chapter 6

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Heya guys! I've posted a lot recently, but here is an update about what is to come:**

**Longer chapters! Finally!**

**I hope this is long enough... My next 'award-winning' solution is...**

**WRITE MORE.**

**I'm hoping that helps me. :3 Oh, and if you say that spelled 'recognised' and 'computerised' incorrectly, I will scream. I'll say this in a FanFic so people can read it 100 times a day: I. Am. British.**

**Oh, and just for the record, _nobody says 'luv.'_ At least not where I come from. =^^=**

**ON TO THE CHAPTER...**

**(By the way, anything in bold is an Author's Note...)**

**(And I don't own Portal...)**

**(Or Portal 2...)**

**(Probably should have mentioned that earlier...)**

**(And I am overusing these ellipses...)**

* * *

3rd Person:

After following the neatly laid footprints for what seemed like an hour, Niomi saw something in the distance. Something white, tall and skinny that was leaning on a mouldy wall for support. Although it was dark, her eyes had adjusted to the light to the point when she noticed the figure's human features and her hopes were raised. She slowly approached the 'human' in an attempt not to frighten her, however a twig cracked under her feat and echoed down the tunnel.

"BIRD!" came a computerised scream as the 'human' turned around in panic. Niomi caught her yellow eyes and recognised the voice.

"No. Way," she muttered, almost unable to move in shock. She found herself trembling in fear at finally meeting her nightmare in the, well, _artificial_ flesh.

"We meet at last," the android said as if she didn't just scream. A smirk replaced the worry that previously covered her face and she began to creep closer to Niomi, (who in response backed away), "and we've got a lot to catch up on."

"GLaDOS, I-I-," she stuttered, trying not to sound scared, yet failing, miserably.

"What were you thinking? You abducted the Cooperative Testing Initiative, you hacked Aperture equipment AND a Personality Construct, almost caused a Reactor Core Meltdown-"

"In my defense," argued Niomi, who had backed up into a wall and was standing there, squished, "that wasn't ENTIRELY my fault, and I was giving Orange and Blue... Dancing lessons...?"

GLaDOS felt she'd had enough. In one swift move she had pinned Niomi's arm behind her back with her cold hands and was pushing her towards in the direction of the elevator through the darkness of the cave-like area they were in. At the bottom of the path, water fell down. _Crap_, thought Niomi, worriedly. The once fully-functional elevator was sparking terribly. GLaDOS had no control over it whatsoever and it was incredibly clear it wasn't going to be working anytime soon.

"Uh oh."

"No. Oh my god. It's broken. We're stuck down here, you marshmallow! All because you had to hack your way in here. Death not enough for you, compared to what you've done. When, and IF we manage to get out of here before you've died of natural causes, I SWEAR I WILL- oh my God,_BIRDBIRDBIRDBIRDBIRD_!" GLaDOS' threat was interrupted by a winged creature that landed near her. In her fear, GLaDOS shielded her face with her arms and began to tremble. _It's after me!_ she thought.

"For God's sake GLaDOS, it's a bird. Yes. Look," lectured Niomi, walking to the rather large crow on a piece of metal. GLaDOS slowly lowered her arms and opened one eye tentatively. Niomi felt like she was going to explode with a mixed feeling. It was somewhere between anger, the urge to smack her head on something sharp, wanting to lecture and insanity. "It is _not_ going to _kill_ you!" With one poke from Niomi's cold finger, the bird flew off.

"How did you do that?"

"I poked it." Niomi turned red with rage at GLaDOS' question.

"Well, no thanks to you, we are stuck down here."

"Hey, GLaDOS. Guess what? It's not my fault."

"It's not your fault?" repeated the AI, "You got us stuck down here." GLaDOS' arms were crossed in frustration.

"It's not my fault that you came down here! It's not my fault I needed to survive! And it's not MY fault you-"

"Why were you messing around with firewalls you nitwit?!"

"Because I was hungry! And if you thought that I didn't understand that you just called me dumb then you are wrong! I am ignoring it!"

"You have got to be kidding me." screamed GLaDOS, both of their voices were raised.

"Look, can we try to find our way out of here? How did you get out when you were a _potato_?"

"Don't you dare bring that up."

"Sorry, PotatOS." snickered Niomi.

"Stop it."

"Whatever you say, _PotatOS_." she raised her hands up in surrender with a grin plastered on her face.

"This is the last time I'm going to ask you nicely-"

"Fine. You win. Now shut up."

Their argument was interrupted be a loud crash behind them. Plastic from the floor flew up in small shards with inpact.

Someone else was joining them.

Someone, or some_thing_.

* * *

**Betcha thought I was leaving it there, huh? No way. I said longer chapters and I meant longer chapters. I have no idea how long I can keep this going, though...**

* * *

"Orange. Blue. Why are you two in the android bodies I'd made for you? How did you find them?" questioned GLaDOS, sternly.

"It was the disassembly machine! This is how we found ourselves!" blurted a tall android in a high-pitched voice. She had long, orange hair that curled slightly at the tips by her waist. Her white jumpsuit fitted her slim figure and was tied around her waist revealing a white top with the Aperture Logo.

"Oh.. Yeah!" added a smaller construct with a much deeper voice after being prodded by the taller one. He had short, blue hair and a black jumpsuit with a white logo that was worn properly over his _average_-looking figure.

GLaDOS didn't seem to believe that in the slightest decided to question their explanation.

"Which disassembly machine?" she shot at what appeared to be the Cooperative Testing Initiative.

"The one that we found in your chamber...?" squeaked Orange, who despite being just slightly shorter than GLaDOS herself, felt like the smallest person there.

"I cannot believe this. I'm stuck. In a pit. With idiots!" she exclaimed to herself before continuing, "Look, I don't know why you were in my chamber, but all of us need to find a way out. And it is not going to be easy."

* * *

**I'm going to leave this chapter here because I'm worried if I keep blathering on about stuff, this story will wonder so far away from the original storyline that you won't be able to see it anymore... And because I'm going back to school and probably won't upload anything for a while. I'll do my best! Oh, and I'm postponing New Beginnings for a while. I'm waiting for the green light from TopHatRose.**

**As for this chapter, well, Niomi meets GLaDOS, and 3 out of 4 people are androids. As for Orange and Blue, I think I'm sticking to their nicknames because those two aren't that intelligent, therefore in this story they don't like the names P-Body and ATLAS because they don't describe their personality. Just a thought- however unlike 'Your Argument Is Invalid- [INSERT ANYTHING HERE]', I say, Your Argument IS Valid- This Is FanFiction And If You Want To Argue With Me Then I'll Happily Listen!**

**Yeahhhh...**

**I'm going to shut up now. ****See ya in the next chapter!**

**Baii****ii!**


	7. Chapter 7

Today was the day. Today was the day he'd save the world. He had found a way out, and was going to get help- he had proof of Her existence and was not afraid to use it.

He grabbed the papers off the desk and strapped the old Cube to his back. In only a few minutes had he scurried out into the open, and ran as fast as his legs would take him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked the Cube, cautiously.

"I'm saving the world! If she gets out then it will be the end of the human race!" he cried.

"I think you're exaggerating."

"Well, I'm not."

"Slow down, you'll-"

"Shhhh... I can see something." he yelled, pointing at a little figure on the horizon in disbelief. He had actually found a town.

* * *

Niomi threw her hands to her stomach in agony. She'd forgotten about how hungry she was after GLaDOS showed up, but the pain was too much for her- she'd have to eat soon. _Rather than complaining,_ she thought, _I'll actually suggest a way to_ _get us out of here_.

"Look. We aren't going to get anywhere by _standing here_, so I don't know about _you_, but _I'm _going to follow this pit 'till _I_ find something useful." she shot at the androids before walking down the tunnel. Above her, old panels hung on their last wires, practically immobile. The place was practically wrecked, and she and the birds seemed to be the only breathing creatures within miles. _Oh wait, the birds flew off, so it is just me. Amazing. And the 'Artificial_ Intelligence-es_' I'm stuck with appear to be the exact opposite of '_Intelligence_.' Horary._

"Be careful! That panel looks-" cried Blue with concern in his voice, but Niomi didn't hear him. A dysfunctional panel hit the ground, just missing the starving, petrified human. The vines that clung to the faulty portable surface skimmed her back, and she jumped with a yelp of terror after seeing how close the panel actually fell.

"W-What the actual complete literal- I-I-I don't even know…" she stammered in shock. She still had no idea about what to do, but she was going to die alone. _Why didn't you _KILL_ that bird? _she thought, then made a mental note to do so when she sees one, then realised she sounded like _Her_, stopped thinking completely.

"Found anything useful yet?" asked GLaDOS with a smirk.

"Shut up." came Niomi's offended reply.

To her surprise, GLaDOS didn't respond. She was staring at a wall.

"GLaDOS?"

"Oh my God." those words came out of the android's mouth, but sounded too worried to be the seemingly merciless AI.

"What? What is it? GLaDOS, you're scaring me. Stop it."

ATLAS and P-Body were silent, waiting for her response.

"T-T-the humans. How do they know?"

"Know what? What do they know? God, you are REALLY scaring me now."

"All of them- a-all of them know about me."

"That can't be possible, can it?" asked ATLAS, who seemed to be as nervous as Niomi. GLaDOS had never been this concerned about anything before, so the thought of what could be causing this made him feel faint.

"Yes. And I know who told them. B-but now, every s-single one is after me."

"I thought you weren't afraid of them." said Niomi.

"I'm not, but it isn't that. _The greatest human minds on Earth are on their way and all of them are coming after me. Every single human is eager to tear me apart- to learn how I work so that they can make more of me and _'improve their intelligence'_. They want to destroy me and they see me as a threat. It will be like reliving my past, but _worse. " the AI broke into a run, followed by the others.

"So, they'll treat you like an alien?" panted the human, trying to keep up with the others.

"Yes. And guess what, your _little friend_ put me in this position." her voice became less scared and more _scary_.

"If you mean Doug, firstly he is not my 'little friend', and secondly, I doubt he would do that, I mean behind-"

"Leave now," said GLaDOS, coldly. She turned and stared into the terrified human's eyes, making her completely freeze, "and I won't have to make what may happen next look like an accident."

That last part sounded more innocent than the rest of the sentence, and Niomi was petrified. That sudden change of tone in her voice sent a shiver down her spine. She had no idea what caused her emotions to change so quickly. GLaDOS wasn't like this, she knew. Under the pressure, though, her theory was that the AI was becoming more corrupt than ever.

"No."

"_No_?"

"No. I won't stop." she said, with all the confidence left in her body, "the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE is after you. I'm NOT going. I'll stay by your side until the moment I die. And I mean that."

GLaDOS didn't know what to say. Nobody had ever offered to help her like that before. She actually felt corrupt, though. There was no way that she could have possibly felt... _lonely_... before. She wanted to scream at the human, though. She was like the others- useless and a distraction. She wasn't worth her time, or effort!

"Just GO..."

"You heard what I said. I'm helping."

"No you are not."

"Yes I am. Orange, Blue, your thoughts on the subject?" the two were startled to hear their name, and in their shock, they knocked down the tower of metal they were building.

"Good luck..." murmured P-Body.

* * *

**LIKEKATTLEBOSSDOTEXE has stopped working...**

**FNFICTIONDOTNET is checking for a solution to the problem...**

**Problem found... Problem: Ran out of ideas for chapter.**

**Solution: End chapter here. Post new one hopefully within a week's time.**

**Message from : Hiiii! I thought this would be a unique way to end this chapter, and nobody has done this before... I don't think...**

**Anyway, this chapter is really where Doug thinks he is saving everyone, including Niomi, but he is actually putting everybody in danger! (cue dramatic **_**dun dun dun**_** style music...) I can't really describe GLaDOS' rage towards Niomi... I think I did that because of all the pressure on her.. I also mentioned that she isn't normally like that and that Niomi thinks she is beginning to become corrupt. **

**I got the idea during a class where we covered 'Evolution', and I felt really annoyed... It made me realise what we are doing to the world. But I was also annoyed because Miss kept going on about human survival and about how smart we are, but it felt wrong, thus this story was born!**

**It is LITERALLY AI and Human against the world...**

**Who will wi-**

**[RAN OUT OF CHARACTERS FOR MESSAGE]**

**-END CRASH REPORT-**

**PLEASE REVIEW- CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM WELCOME.**


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